Jessica Helm, 457 words
The two articles Relationship Among Respondent Ethnicity, Ethnic Identity, Acculturation, and Homeless Status on a Homeless Population's Functional Status and Revisiting the Contact Hypothesis: The Case of Public Exposure to Homelessness both examine aspects of homelessness. Including public opinion about homelessness and factors surrounding the homeless themselves. Impacts of homeless on society and the homeless' people themselves.
The article Relationship Among Respondent Ethnicity, Ethnic Identity, Acculturation, and Homeless Status on a Homeless Population's Functional Status examines the correlation of ethnicity and the homeless' functional status. The study was conducted in Los Angeles county on 394 homeless, within those 394 participants more than one-third of them claimed to be on or use drugs at the time of the interview. This study used the Behavior and Symptom Identification Scale to measure functional impairment on the homeless, which they measured by the subscales: Relation to Self and Others, Depression–Anxiety, Daily Living Skills, Impulsive– Addictive Behavior, and Psychosis. The study found that White and African American did poorer than Native Americans and Latinos, on the BASIS subscales relation to self and others, depression-anxiety, and daily living skills. Another finding was that the degree of homelessness affects the depression-anxiety scale, in which people with acute homelessness showed higher signs than people who were chronically homeless.
The contact hypothesis indicates that the amount of contact between the member's pf an in-group and an out-group can positively change the stereotypical attitudes towards the outside from the in-group which is examined in the article Revisiting the Contact Hypothesis: The Case of Public Exposure to Homelessness. The amount of time spent with a certain group can lower prejudice against said group. The study determined that overall exposure to homeless people affected people's opinions/views in a positive manner. Exposure also positively affected people's willingness to get involved and support policy about homelessness. They also found that the age of the participant, impacted the amount of sympathy towards the homeless, with older age comes a decrease in sympathy for the homeless. African Americans and Hispanics were less likely to hold empathy for the homeless.
Both articles touch on aspects of homelessness, however they deal with different areas and do not leave much for comparison. Nonetheless, the article Revisiting the Contact Hypothesis: The Case of Public Exposure to Homelessness could examine racial impacts of biased towards the homeless. When look at racism as impact or factor, you can possibly determine the personal threat level felt towards homeless in relation to race and ethnicity. Relationship Among Respondent Ethnicity, Ethnic Identity, Acculturation, and Homeless Status on a Homeless Population's Functional Status hold criticism due to the fact that the participants were under the influence at the time on the interview, which could of possibly affect the outcome of the surveys.
